Satsahasrika-hevajra-tika, a commentary on te Hevajratantra, a Vajrayana or Esoteric Bddhist text, is published here for the first time. It is second such commentary to be available in print. A fragment of Sanskrit text only is available, the author being Dasabhumisvara Vajragarbha. Althoug the Tibetan translation of the commentary available in bsTan.hgyur comments on the whole of Hevajratantra, the editor has doubts about the authoriship of later chapters.

In the course of te commentary, the author throws light on the socio-religious ethos of his days and is hightly critical of many of the then current practices. Besides this, the commentary furnishes many technical details which are difficult to understand without a guru well-versed in the esoteric lore.

In order to complete the picture, the summaries of the chapter, from Tibetan translation are suppilied by the editor.

Malati J. Shendge, editor of the commentary, is a well-known Indologist, and has worked for more than two decades on Vajrayana as practiced in India, Tibet and Japan. She has published several articles on different aspects of Esoteric Buddhism, and has presented a penetrating analysis of Esoteric Buddhism and its thought world with social anthropological methods.

PrefaceAbbreviations1. Introduction2. Satsahasrika-hevajra-tika (Sanskrit Text)3. Satsahasrika-hevajra-tika (Tibetan Text)4. English Translation5. English Summaries6. Notes to Sanskrit Text7. Notes to English TranslationAppendix IColophons of the patalas of the HtiAppendix IISrisahajasiddhi, with Tibetan translation, notes and English translationAppendix IIIThe literary forms of tantrasAppendix IVThe place of Hevajratantra in the Tibetan canonical literatureIndex